10th International Temperate Reefs Symposium (ITRS)

Sally Rouse

SAMS

10th International Temperate Reefs Symposium (ITRS), University of Western Australia, Perth
The International Temperate Reef Symposium is the premier conference for marine scientists whose research focuses on temperate hard-bottom habitats. This year the meeting was held at the University of Western Australia in Perth from the 12-17th of January. The meeting included 250 oral and poster presentations, as well as a series of plenary sessions. The research ranged intertidal ecology to citizen science, with the overarching theme of ‘Ecological Transitions’. Two ‘casual plenary’ sessions gave senior ecologists a platform to share their personal perspectives on trends in temperate reef ecology over the last three decades.

I presented the results of my experiments on drivers of benthic productivity on artificial structures, that form part of my PhD. My presentation was giving during the ‘Human Impacts’ session, which had other talks particularly pertinent to my research. The presentation was useful in facilitating my engagement with other researchers working on artificial substrates. This was the first time that I have presented the results of my work and the feedback and input from other reef ecologists has aided me in planning the next steps of my PhD.

I also presented a poster on a continuing project to develop an artificial grass sediment trap to measure food supply to organisms that live in benthic boundary layers. The poster was well received and it led to some interesting discussions on other potential applications of the sediment traps.

I would like to thank to the Challenger Society for their financial support that enabled me to attend the meeting.